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A Great Day for Germans in Frankfurt

In yet another exciting day of racing in Frankfurt, Timo Bracht set a course record in winning his second Ironman European Championship, while Sandra Wallenhorst won the much-anticipated showdown with Yvonne Van Vlerken to take the women's crown in Frankfurt.

Bracht used a blazing 2:43 marathon split to run his way to the men's title today, passing Eneko Llanos with seven km of the marathon remaining and flew into the spectacular finish here at historic Romer, setting a course record with his 8:59:16 finish. Bracht had started the run with last year's champion, Chris McCormack, about three minutes behind Llanos, who had remained ahead of the two men after the swim and through the entire bike ride. Bracht looked like he would have to settle for third after the 2007 Ford Ironman World Champion surged away from him and caught up to Llanos, who finished second to McCormack here a year ago after dueling with the Australian through the marathon.

Just when it looked like McCormack was going to run his way to another win here in Frankfurt, he suddenly stopped because of cramps. Bracht flew by McCormack and surged past Llanos into the lead. McCormack hung on for third, followed by Andreas Raelert, who had led for parts of the swim and bike today before slowing dramatically at the start of the marathon. Raelert, competing in only his second Ironman, gathered himself and finished a solid fourth. Rounding out the top five was Mathias Hecht.

The much anticipated duel between Sandra Wallenhorst, the fasest women ever at an official Ironman race, and Yvonne Van Vlerken, who holds the world's best time over the Ironman distance, turned out to be as exciting as predicted. Wallenhorst was faster in the swim and quickly took the lead in the women's race on the bike. Van Vlerken steadily gained ground on the German and finished the bike just seconds behind.

Through the first half of the marathon, Van Vlerken pulled away from Wallenhorst. The second half of the marathon, though, was dominated by the German, who quickly went from a minute-down to a minute ahead as she ran a 3:05 marathon split to claim the women's European title. Van Vlerken struggled over the closing miles of the run, but was able to hang on for second. Nicole Leder ran a 3:02 marathon to claim third, while swim leader Andrea Brede took fourth. Rounding out the top five was Finland's Tiina Boman.

The Frankfurter Sparkasse Ironman European Championship is considered to be the most competitive Ironman race of the year outside of Kona, and today's race certainly lived up to that billing. To follow all the updates from today's exciting race, click on the coverage tab on the main page or on the Frankfurter Sparkasse Ironman European Championship race page here on Ironman.com